Sonic the Hedge Fund

Nasty houses can be fixed, but it's only worth it if it's in a decent area. With hindsight I can see why I got the reaction - the house does look sh1te. But I guess unless you know the area you only have that to judge it by!

I never actualy said it was nice house.....

Thanks, at least somone 'gets it'. I don't much care what this house is 'worth', it's the drop that is significant not the price!!! I also don't give a jot if some don't think this is a nice area, because that's all relative, it's always possible to find a 'bigger' or 'nicer' house....but a council estate this is NOT, by a long, long way. There are several houses with swimming pools in the next street FFS!!! It's when people start chucking straw men that I know that I have rattled some cages.....

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I quite agree, can't argue with that, my eyes are wide open thanks! My point is the price has fallen this far already, and we havn't even started yet!

Erm, it's a five bed, and knowing this area well I can guarantee it's never, ever been a council house (although TBF it does looks a bit like one!) This is NOT a council estate by a long way, check the Neighbourhood Profile

Strictly speaking anechdotal I know, but I think this example is significant because it counters the old 'prices for big houses in nice areas wont fall much'. A big house in a very nice area, for £250k. Next door sold for £310K just last year, one down the road went for £339K in 2006 (they must be pi55ed!!) Now to be fair, it does need quite a bit of work, but £60-90k worth? By my estimation you could make this place very nice for £25-30k (And I do have a good idea, having done two complete house refurbs) The house is here You can check other recent sales here You can check how nice this area is here So there we go, another VI myth busted!

So much for the weakening pound helping manufacturers!

Have you actualy applied for a mortgage? There is a big difference between a mortgage 'illustration' and a real mortgage offer!

Good advice from shippers......the number one rule of investment is DYOR (Do Your Own Research)

I agree, it's just politics. They present ideas that they know somone will obstruct, giving the oppotunity to blame somone else. I did wonder why the Tories supported the bank bailout - is it because they kow it won't work anyway, but they dont want to be blamed for standing in the way of a 'solution' (TBH I wouldn't credit them with that much inteligence!)

Did anyone catch Jack Dee on the 'Have I got news for you' trailer? 'Watch have I got news for you for half an hour, while your house looses a thousand quid!' It's everywhere

It's effectively a price control, and price contols always lead to contraction of supply.

I'm in high-end telecoms, working predominantly with banks and financials. Likewise, we're very busy ATM, which seems strange given the current climate in our target market. But our projcts are very large and long term, so maybe they are just out of step. Having worked right through both the last recesion and the dot-com crash, I think that there will always be plenty of work for those prepared to make necesery compromises. I always say that out of chaos comes oppotunity, so good luck CON, I hope it all works out for ya

It's good to hear straight talk from the front line, so EAs are more than welcome here in my book.

I just don't get it! I regard St Albans like London; great place to visit, to see the sights or go out on the town. But not a nice place to live in, paticularly if you have kids! TBF the local schools are very good, but there are just not enough school places to go round, so many St Albans kids get sent to school in Watford or Harpenden. I guess that probably has some impact on local property prices.

WTF? St Albans is very very much overated IMO, it looks nice in places but below the surface it is quite rough. The town center is a mess, parking is a nightmare and in general the facilities are crap or non existant. Not to mention the shockingly high number of drunken mentalists, beggars and chav single mums wandering the high street, abusing passers by and generaly causing trouble. I think it's worse than London in this respect. It is beyond me why anyone would want to live there at all, let alone pay the crazy local house prices!

Number of loans/Total amount loaned i.e the figures indicate that the number of loans has dropped, but by implication the average loan is much larger, since gross lending has gone up agianst the much reduced number of loans.

EAs with honesty and integrity will weather this storm; the rest will get what they deserve But I found the rest of the article more interesting, all the useless posturing by Gordon and Comical Ali to try and get the mortgage market going again. This just tells me that we are firmly headed down the same road as the states. It didn't work there and it won't work here!

Its BECAUSE of the predicted colapse in population that unchecked imigration has been allowed, but it only makes up for a small part of the forecast population decline Link

I agree There are plenty of family homes; they just dont have families in them! The boomer bulge will be geting old, trading down, just at the point when the cycle should turn back up

Inflation is out of the bag, everyone I know seems to be talking about the shocking rise in the cost of essentials like food, fuel and utilities. But the probelm is the sheeple just dont get it. I have a work coleage with a PHD who did not even understand that lower interest rates can debase the curency leading to higher prices for anything imported.......

Maybe I have been very, very lucky, but this was not my experience at all. I dropped out of an engineering course at FE college in 1992 when I started a small technical business, then started doing contract work around 1993. There was no shortage of work and I earned well by working lots of hours. By 1995 I had a company car and was earning significantly more £K than my age (as I have done ever since). So I was able to buy a 3 bed house for £77k by early 1998, when most of my old school mates were just starting out after Uni. And I do remeber very well having seen house prices going down, down and down; my first thought at the time being that I had to get on the ladder before they went too far back up.

Good points TFB. It doesn't mater how financialy inept they are, wanabe FTB's with no deposit now have no choices other than back to mum and dad or demanding lower rents. Add in the increased rental SUPPLY from all those OOs unable to sell, and it doesn't take long to see that BTL is truly f@cked!

In the 90s downturn lots of festivals were FREE Anyone remember Castlemorton?